144 NATURE TEACHING. 



Bees too come to the flowers, go down to the 

 bottom where the honey is and if it is a stami- 

 nate flower, have in so doing to push past the 

 column in the middle which is covered with 

 pollen. As a result they come out with a large 

 amount of pollen on them. Such a bee if 

 watched will probably be found to visit anoth- 

 er pumpkin flower. If the second one is also a 

 staminate flower it simply gets more pollen on 

 itself. If however it goes to a pistillate 

 flower, that portion of itself which has become 

 covered with pollen, now rubs against the 

 stigma, to which being sticky, some of the 

 pollen adheres. Thus we see that insects play 

 a very important part in the carrying of pollen 

 from one flower to another. The importance 

 of this work of bees and other insects to flow- 

 ers cannot be over estimated and it requires 

 very little observation to see how universal 

 it js. Besides bees, butter-flies, moths, and 

 humming-birds carry on the same work. An 

 owner of an orchard, of limes for example who 

 keeps bees may not only directly profit by the 

 honey they yield, but also, perhaps to a much 

 greater extent, by the increased amount of 

 fruit he obtains from his trees due to their visits. 



3. It might at first be thought that whilst 

 the visits of insects were absolutely neces- 



